Paper Maps vs internet maps

The San Jose Mercury news recently ran an article about a map sale being put on by a local map publisher. What was interesting was that the maps were out of date, which is why he was getting rid of them. He said some people would be interested in such things, to show how things used to be.

I know what he means. Things do change. I remember my mother had a bunch of maps of California, and depending on their age, you could see which freeways had been built. It really does change the way things on, when new roads spring up. THat is the problem with on-line maps. They are always up dated. They don’t hold the story of the past.

The article talked about how people think that paper maps will go away completely, but he doesn’t think so. I agree. One of the problems I have had with printing out guides from the mapquest and yahoo maps and google maps is that if you deviate from the directions it is hard to find your way back. Or if you want to go somewhere else afterwards, you can’t. That is the nice thing about a map. You can unfold, it, see where you are, and go there.

Or you can call me. This is something both my daughter and my partner have done from time to time, as I sit in front of a computer all day, working, and they know they can call me up, tell me where they are, and I can find it on one of the map sites out there. I have done this for friends as well. Heck, I have also called up friends, when I am lost, and asked them to look up things on the web for me.

This is what happens when we don’t have maps in the car with us.

And don’t even bring up GPS. There is a town in Wales where the GPS has been giving the wrong information so much that they have signs saying not to rely on it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 12:38 amand is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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